Grief and Loss
Grief is the reaction people have to any loss in their lives. It includes a wide range of responses which vary with each person, the type of loss and its meaning to them, and their particular circumstances and experiences. The death of a significant person in one’s life is a major loss, but grief can be felt about many losses.
Examples include:
Coping with Grief – am I going mad?
It may certainly feel like it at times! Many people feel such intense emotional pain following a death or significant loss that they wonder if they can survive. Grief affects people physically, emotionally, psychologically and spirituality. At the same time, many people are forced to make major adjustments to their lives and learn new skills at a time when they feel least able to do so. Receiving validation and permission to grieve is important in the recovery and healing process. It may be hard to believe it in the early days, but the pain does ease and thoughts about the person who has died become more comfortable and the happy memories are treasured.
How Long Will This Go On?
Grief is not an experience that has a tidy beginning, middle or end. The journey through grief is a unique and highly individual experience which can take varying periods of time. Rather than focus on a timeline it is perhaps more helpful to focus on its intensity and duration. Numbness, yearning, anger, and despair are just some of the many and varied feelings which are experienced while grieving and progress is made as these feelings are worked through. Freud called this grief work.
What’s the Best Way to Cope with Grief
All of us are individuals with different cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs, personalities and life experiences which influence the way in which we deal with grief. Every person needs to make meaning of the loss for themselves, and find a way of healing the wound that the loss has created and in this sense, there is no right way or wrong way of coping.
Its important to remember however that grieving is a natural and necessary process that most people are able to experience and emerge from in a healthy manner. However, sharing your experience with others may help you to combat the aloneness, loneliness, sadness, depression and rage that can overwhelm you. Support can also provide acceptance and a safe place to sit with your grief and your unique way of grieving.
Any continued fears or anxieties about your well-being or thoughts of self harm should be addressed by seeking help. Prolonged intense emotion or obsessional thoughts or behaviour that makes functioning difficult may also require help. If you feel you would like to talk to a counsellor please contact me.
Examples include:
- The ending of a relationship
- Moving or migrating
- Losing a job, health, a pet, a role in life
- Giving up something that mattered a lot
- Losing a dream
Coping with Grief – am I going mad?
It may certainly feel like it at times! Many people feel such intense emotional pain following a death or significant loss that they wonder if they can survive. Grief affects people physically, emotionally, psychologically and spirituality. At the same time, many people are forced to make major adjustments to their lives and learn new skills at a time when they feel least able to do so. Receiving validation and permission to grieve is important in the recovery and healing process. It may be hard to believe it in the early days, but the pain does ease and thoughts about the person who has died become more comfortable and the happy memories are treasured.
How Long Will This Go On?
Grief is not an experience that has a tidy beginning, middle or end. The journey through grief is a unique and highly individual experience which can take varying periods of time. Rather than focus on a timeline it is perhaps more helpful to focus on its intensity and duration. Numbness, yearning, anger, and despair are just some of the many and varied feelings which are experienced while grieving and progress is made as these feelings are worked through. Freud called this grief work.
What’s the Best Way to Cope with Grief
All of us are individuals with different cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs, personalities and life experiences which influence the way in which we deal with grief. Every person needs to make meaning of the loss for themselves, and find a way of healing the wound that the loss has created and in this sense, there is no right way or wrong way of coping.
Its important to remember however that grieving is a natural and necessary process that most people are able to experience and emerge from in a healthy manner. However, sharing your experience with others may help you to combat the aloneness, loneliness, sadness, depression and rage that can overwhelm you. Support can also provide acceptance and a safe place to sit with your grief and your unique way of grieving.
Any continued fears or anxieties about your well-being or thoughts of self harm should be addressed by seeking help. Prolonged intense emotion or obsessional thoughts or behaviour that makes functioning difficult may also require help. If you feel you would like to talk to a counsellor please contact me.